BO - Need Freak

Many people have been using Gnohmon's flamingos of Contentment, Happiness or Ecstacy over the years, and many others used Inge's Motive Defender or SleepyCat's Motive Defender v2. These are all fantastic objects to protect the motives of your sims, but they have a weakness: they can't be configured in-game to fit individual situations.
The motive Defender models can be configured in SimPE, but the Flamingos can't be configured at all. And on top of that, the Flamingos are targets for kicking and stealing... very annoying.

But now, things are about to change: Enter the Need Freak!

The Need Freak has 7 (yes, SEVEN!) Presets, one of which can be altered to your own liking by editing the "Configuration" BCON in the package using SimPE. But it also has in-game menu options to tailor it to specific situations.

Switch On/Off: this option allows you to switch the Freak on or off. When it's off, it does nothing at all, and when it's on, it will adjust your sims' motives onve every 20 sim minutes.

Switch to Defender/Flamingo mode: in Flamingo mode, when any motive falls below the minimum value, the Freak will raise it to maximum. In Defender mode, when a motive falls below the minimum, it will be raised up to that minimum, and when it exceeds the maximum, it will be lowered back to that maximum.

Switch Working NPCs on/off: only available in Defender mode. When off, the motives of NPCs on the job will NOT be adjusted.

Switch Pets on/off: again only available in Defender mode, but determines whether Pets' motives will be adjusted.

Switch Servos on/off: like the previous two, but now for Servos.

Hit Once: this option is present ONLY when the Freak is switched off. Using this option, you can instruct the Freak to immediately adjust the motives of all sims present according to the current settings.

Change Model...: this option allows you to select one of 12 different object models for your Freak, including Flamingo, Gnome and several shrubs and potted plants.

Preset...: this option allows you to choose one of seven preset modes: Default (using the setting in the "Configuration" BCON), None (Motive Defender that acts like it isn't there), Flamingo of Contentment, Happiness or Ecstacy, Motive Defender (Inge) or Motive Defender (Sleepy)

Setup...: the menu that allows you to set the minimum and maximum for each of the seven Motives to one of 11 different values: -100, -90, -75, -50, -25, 0, 25, 50, 75, 90 and 100. It also allows you to set any Motive to "Dynamic" (min -100, max 100) or "Static" (minimum and maximum are set to the same value of your choice)

As you see, the Freak is packed with configuration options. But we're not there yet!

There's one more option - Fix Token - which needs a bit of an explanation. When you place your first Freak on a lot, you'll notice nothing strange: all the menu options are available as and when appropriate! However, when you place a second Freak on the same lot, you'll find that it's not fully functional: it only shows the Change Model option!
Now, if at any time, you were to delete the second (non-functional) Freak, nothing of consequence would happen.
But if you were to leave the second Freak alone, and deleted the first (fully functional) one instead, you'd find that your sims' motives will no longer be protected. Now if you click the remaining Freak, you'll notice that it suddenly shows TWO main options: Change Model and Fix Token. Choosing the latter will make this Freak fully functional!

So, with one single mod - the Need Freak - you'll now have a full range of motive protecting options, configurable both outside and inside the game.

NOTE: there's a second file in this archive: BO - Spawn Objects - Data.package. This file is meant only for users of the mod BO - Spawn Objects. Replace the existing Data file with this new version, and you'll be able to spawn the Freak at comm lots as well **NOTE** If you're already using data file v1.02 for Spawn Objects, then you should NOT overwrite it!
When Spawning a Freak, you'll need to unpause your game for a moment, in order to allow the menu to appear. When it appears, you'll notice that the Freak isn't functional yet: you'll need to select Fix Token first!

The Need Freak is found under Miscellaneous/Miscellaneous in the buy catalog (default model: Flamingo), and costs Zilch, as in Zero Simoleons!

Update, July 31st, 2011: Version 2 now has TWELVE presets, SIX of which are configurable, each with their own BCON. It also has the added capacity to function like the flamingos of Aspiration (available in flamingo mode only). And finally, it also has a menu option "Check Settings" that pops up a Notification window with all the current settings.

Update, August 1st, 2011: Version 2.1 released. The "Check Settings" notification has been improved considerably: better layout and no more irrelevant information.

Update, August 2nd, 2011: I so hoped that everything was alright now. Alas, not so much... When you visit a comm lot, spawn a Freak, Fix its Token, and then leave the lot without destroying the Freak first, next time you visit the same lot, the Freak is gone, but the unlinked token is still there, preventing you from Fixing the Token on any newly-spawned Freak. A fix is needed, of course.

So, here's version 2.2!. For those that already installed and configured their own settings on v2.1, and don't want to do it all over again, there's no need to redownload. Just get the Patch for v2.1 and put it in the same folder as Freak v2.1 and all will be fine!

Update, May20th, 2012: And I ran into another bug (I'm fortunate... I mostly find bugs myself, before others do ): When I chose "Setup.../Hunger.../Static.../0", both Hunger AND Social were updated. My fault: I failed to clear Temp 0 before use. So now I fixed that as well.

So here's version 2.3!: For those that already installed and configured any earlier version; you do NOT have to do it all again! Just download the patch, and drop it in the same folder as the main mod (overwriting any earlier patches).

Final Notes:

I've listed Nightlife as the minimum requirement, but it may be possible that this mod also works with Basegame or University. I'm not sure...

As of version 2.3, I no longer include the extra Spawn Objects data file, because Need Freak is already included in the latest available data file

It likes to get freaky with your sims' needs
Just kidding lol. The name makes me think of neat freak , so maybe he is using that as a refrence to keeping the needs neat like a neat freak would their home

@Lee: What Lev says isn't all that far off, really. This thing was just a mere idea when I first mentioned my intentions (on Simbology) to make something like this, and while I was writing that post, I quickly needed a name that would sound cool. "Need Freak" was the first thing that came to mind, and I stuck with it, even though I later came up with 'Need Demon', with a wink to Michael Jackson's song "Speed Demon"

The reason I *did* stick with it, was that Zirconia Wolf (my biggest fan without a doubt) mentioned her particular interest in anything that had "Freak" in its name...

The check for deletion of a Freak was a necessity, really. Multiple active Freaks wouldn't make any sense at all, and inactive Freaks don't need a Token. On top of that, the only secure way I could think of to keep track of multiple tokens of the same type, would be to add some very complicated extra tests to find the right token for each Freak, and the right Freak for each token. I didn't want to go there.

And then there was a bonus: When I finally had everything in place and went to test spawning the Freak on a comm lot, I found out that the token wasn't created under those circumstances. The "Fix Token" option immediately appeared on the Freak though, so the problem was solved even before I encountered it.